Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to report parliamentary committee draft

RemovedRecital 11: deleted

AddedRecital 8: (8) The Commission should be empowered to adopt implementing acts on a set of common indicators of general application in the euro area, which should take into account the location and scale of cash-access infrastructure vis-à-vis citizens’ effective demand for cash and payment habits resulting from changes in their preferences and technological developments. Those indicators would allow Member States to effectively monitor and assess the acceptance of payments in cash and access to cash throughout their territory, in all their different regions, including the outermost regions, covering both urban and non-urban areas, with special attention to sparsely populated areas. In view of the preparation of such implementing acts, the Commission should consult the European Central Bank.

RemovedRecital 11 a (new): (11a) Unilateral practices, such as the non-acceptance of cash payments by public entities, including public hospitals and public museums, have not been regulated procedures for the settlement of pecuniary obligations provided for in the national law of a Member State. They should be considered ex ante unilateral exclusions of cash.

AddedRecital 9: (9) The Commission should be empowered to adopt implementing acts addressed to a specific Member State when the measures proposed by that Member State appear insufficient or in cases where, in spite of the findings of the annual report sent by that Member State, ex ante unilateral exclusions of cash are undermining the principle of mandatory acceptance of payments in euro banknotes and coins and/or where access to cash is not sufficient and effective. Such an implementing act could require the Member State concerned to take measures such as those outlined in recitals 7 and 8, or measures that have been considered effective in other Member States in ensuring that the principles of mandatory acceptance of payments in cash or sufficient and effective access to cash in proportion with citizens’ demand are not undermined.

RemovedRecital 12 a (new): (12a) In order to ensure that people and businesses benefit from a wide acceptance network and are able to use the digital euro effectively in their day-to-day payments, payees who are subject to the mandatory acceptance of payments in digital euro should not unilaterally exclude payments in cash through contractual terms that have not been individually negotiated or through commercial practices.

AddedRecital 10: (10) In accordance with the principle of sincere cooperation, the Commission, the European Central Bank and the designated national competent authorities with the required powers as regards acceptance of payments in cash and access to cash, and over the cash-related market activities of the cash industry should closely collaborate on issues related to acceptance of payments in cash and access to cash. A regular dialogue among these institutions and authorities, based notably on the annual reports of Member States to the Commission and the European Central Bank, should aim at identifying cases of widespread ex ante unilateral exclusions of cash and insufficient access to cash in specific national territories or regions. It would also aim at designing and adopting remedial measures that Member States should adopt as a means to comply with their obligations to ensure acceptance of cash and sufficient and effective access to cash.

RemovedArticle 3 – paragraph 1 – point 4: 4. ‘ex ante unilateral exclusions of cash’ means a situation when a retailer or service provider unilaterally excludes cash as a payment method for example by introducing a ‘no cash’ sign or by using a pre-formulated standard form contract. In this case, the payer and payee do not freely agree to a means of payment for a purchase;

AddedRecital 11: (11) In order to ensure other adequate exceptions to the mandatory acceptance of euro cash may be introduced at a later stage if they are required, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 TFEU should be delegated to the Commission to supplement this Regulation by introducing other adequate exceptions to the principle of mandatory acceptance for the euro area as a whole. The Commission may only adopt such other adequate exceptions if they are necessary, proportionate to their aim, and preserve the effectiveness of the legal tender status of euro cash. The power of the Commission to adopt delegated acts for the introduction of other adequate exceptions to the mandatory acceptance of accept euro cash should be without prejudice to the possibility for Member States, pursuant to their own powers in areas of shared competence, to adopt national legislation introducing exceptions to the mandatory acceptance deriving from the legal tender status in accordance with the conditions laid down by the Court of Justice of the European Union in the judgment in Joined Cases C-422/19 and C-423/19. It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making. In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, t…

RemovedArticle 5 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 – point b: (b) where, prior to the payment, the payee has agreed with the payer on a different means of payment, in accordance with Article 5a.

AddedRecital 13: (13) This Regulation ensures full respect for the fundamental right of freedom to conduct a business and the fundamental right of consumer protection enshrined in Article 16 and 38 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union respectively. This Regulation concerns the preferred payment method of the currency that has legal tender status, which payers legitimately may choose to settle their debts. Thus, the measures in this Regulation only concern the way enterprises receive payments. The interference with those fundamental rights is therefore indirect and very limited. It is justified by the general interest objective of ensuring the effectiveness of legal tender, and is proportionate to this objective.

RemovedArticle 5 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2 a (new): For the purposes of point (b), the burden of proof to establish that such an agreement existed in a particular case shall be on the payee.

AddedRecital 14: (14) The share of cash payments compared to electronic payments could vary across certain vulnerable groups including older age groups, persons with disabilities, and people with limited digital skills and lower income levels. This proposal is consistent with the European Accessibility Act18, which covers automated teller machines (ATMs). Furthermore, financially excluded people, such as the unbanked, asylum seekers and migrants, who may not be able or willing to use means of payment supplied by the private sector, rely on cash as their payment method. Cash is considered to provide for a clear overview of expenses, with high degrees of ease of use, speed, safety and privacy. Vulnerable groups are more at risk of losing their access to a method of payment if their access to cash deteriorates. Thus, this Regulation would aim to preserve financial inclusion of vulnerable groups with a dependency on cash payments by ensuring that everyone in the euro area would be free to choose the preferred payment method and has access to basic cash services, while supporting Member States in continuing their policy efforts to promote digital financial inclusion, for example through measures aimed to increase financial and specifically digital finance literacy in education and training systems, as well as to address gaps in digital infrastructure, including in rural areas.

RemovedArticle 5 a (new): Article 5a / Prohibition of ex ante unilateral exclusions of cash / Payees subject to the obligation to accept euro banknotes and coins shall not use contractual terms that have not been individually negotiated or commercial practices, including ‘no cash’ signs, that have the object or the effect of excluding the use of euro banknotes and coins by payers of monetary debts denominated in euro. Such contractual terms or commercial practices shall not be binding on the payer. A contractual term shall be regarded as not having been individually negotiated where it has been drafted in advance and where the payer has therefore not been able to influence the substance of the term, particularly in the context of a pre-formulated standard form contract.

AddedArticle 2 – paragraph 1: 1. This Regulation applies, in the Member States whose currency is the euro, to the settlement of pecuniary debts in so far as they are to be settled in cash, in whole or in part, where a payment obligation exists in accordance with the applicable law or established legal practices. To ensure the effectiveness of the legal tender of cash, this Regulation applies also to ex ante unilateral exclusion of payments in cash and to the access to cash.

RemovedArticle 6: deleted / (deleted) / (deleted)

AddedArticle 3 – paragraph 1 – point 4: 4. ‘ex ante unilateral exclusions of cash’ means a situation when a retailer or service provider unilaterally excludes cash as a payment method for example by introducing a ‘no cash’ sign or by using a pre-formulated standard form contract, creating a situation where the payer and payee do not freely agree to a means of payment for a purchase;

RemovedArticle 8 – paragraph 1: 1. Member States shall ensure sufficient and effective access to cash throughout their territory, in all their different regions, including urban and non-urban areas. In order to ensure sufficient and effective access to cash, Member States shall monitor access to cash throughout their territory, in all their different regions, including urban and non-urban areas, on the basis of the common indicators adopted by the Commission, weighted according to individual national indicators connected with national cash demand, and shall assess the situation. Common indicators shall assess at least the following criteria:

AddedArticle 3 – paragraph 1 – point 8: 8. ‘enterprise’ means an entity engaged in an economic activity, irrespective of its legal form, including partnerships or associations regularly engaged in an economic activity.

RemovedArticle 8 – paragraph 1 – point f (new): (f) the charges for cash services at ATMs and over the counter.

AddedArticle 6 – paragraph 1: The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 10 to supplement this Regulation by identifying other adequate exceptions of a monetary law nature to the principle of mandatory acceptance. Those exceptions shall be justified by an objective of public interest and proportionate to that aim, shall not undermine the effectiveness of the legal tender status of euro cash, and shall only be permitted provided that other means for the payment of monetary debts are available. When preparing those delegated acts, the Commission shall consult the European Central Bank.

RemovedArticle 8 – paragraph 1 a (new): 1a. ATM providers and payment service providers who intend to close a bank branch or an ATM shall perform a detailed impact assessment based on the common indicators to ensure that sufficient and effective access to cash remains guaranteed after the closure of the bank branch or ATM. They shall notify their findings to their national competent authority in writing. Where the level of access to cash is not sufficient and effective, the provider responsible for the closure shall take measures to remedy that situation.

AddedArticle 7 – paragraph 1: 1. In order to ensure the acceptance of cash in accordance with Article 4(2), Member States shall monitor the acceptance of payments in cash and the level of ex ante unilateral exclusions of payments in cash throughout their territory, in all their different regions, including the outermost regions, in both urban and non-urban, in particular sparsely populated, areas, on the basis of the common indicators adopted by the Commission and shall assess the situation.

RemovedArticle 9 – paragraph 2: 2. For the purposes of Articles 7 and 8, the Commission shall adopt implementing acts of general application on a set of common indicators Member States shall consider together with individual national indicators to monitor and assess the acceptance of payments in cash and cash supply in line with demand throughout their territory, in all their different regions, including urban and non-urban areas. Those implementing acts shall be adopted [within X months after the entry into force of this Regulation] in accordance with the advisory procedure referred to in Article 11. When preparing those implementing acts, the Commission shall consult the European Central Bank.

AddedArticle 7 – paragraph 3: 3. If a Member State considers that the level of acceptance of payments in cash in their territory or parts thereof undermines mandatory acceptance of euro banknotes and coins, it shall set out the remedial measures it commits to take in accordance with Article 9(4). To that end, the Member State shall establish an effective, proportionate and coherent enforcement mechanism.

RemovedArticle 9 – paragraph 4: 4. If a Member State considers that the mandatory acceptance of payments in cash is undermined or that sufficient and effective access to cash is not ensured, it shall indicate in its annual report the remedial measures it commits to take in order to comply with the obligations set out in Articles 7 and 8. The remedial measures shall enter into force without undue delay.

AddedArticle 8 – paragraph 1: 1. Member States shall ensure sufficient and effective access to cash in proportion with citizens’ demand throughout their territory, in all their different regions, including the outermost regions, in both urban and non-urban, in particular sparsely populated, areas. In order to ensure sufficient and effective access to cash, Member States shall monitor access to cash throughout their territory, in all their different regions, including the outermost regions, in both urban and non-urban, in particularsparsely populated, areas, on the basis of the common indicators adopted by the Commission and shall assess the situation.

AddedUnder the Rapporteur’s vision, defining that response is the purpose of this proposal. He clearly distinguishes between two digital forms of the single currency accessible to citizens and businesses.

AddedOn the one hand, the offline digital euro is understood as a tokenised version of cash, not account-based, but operating through “device-to-device” payments. It guarantees privacy, resilience, and universal accessibility even in times of network failure or crisis. Stored and transferred locally on secure devices, it preserves the right of citizens to hold central-bank money in all circumstances. In short: digital cash.

AddedOn the other hand, the online digital euro is conceived as an account-based system that requires a digital euro settlement infrastructure operated through the ECB. By its very nature, the online form of the digital euro entails risks of bank disintermediation, loss of deposits, direct competition with private payment solutions and, ultimately, a negative impact on the financing capacity of European businesses and households.

AddedToday, Europe’s payment ecosystem works: citizens can pay conveniently, and the system is stable. The issue is not one of functionality, but of scale, reach, and dependency. For over twenty years, Europeans have shared a currency but not an indigenous pan-European payment system. Many transactions still depend on non-European providers, exposing Europe to technological and geopolitical risks. The Commission’s 2023 proposals sought to address this via a digital euro, but since then, private initiatives have advanced and Europe’s priorities have evolved.

AddedThe Rapporteur’s amendments offer a nuanced, realistic and updated response. They propose establishing an offline digital euro while making the online version conditional on the absence of a pan-European sovereign retail payment solution, to be verified by the Commission through a market test once the ECB concludes its offline digital euro preparatory work.

AddedThe Rapporteur stresses his agnostic stance toward the outcome of this test, from which he expects an objective assessment of the private sector’s capacity to operate at euro-area scale in person-to-person, point-of-sale and e-commerce payments. It is in the Rapporteur’s interest to clarify that this assessment by the Commission shall in no case delay the ECB’s preparatory work or the overall process.

AddedThis approach provides a holistic, proportionate and evidence-based response, balancing financial stability with competitiveness in the payments system. Under this framework, the offline digital euro would represent a proportionate European response, free from financial stability risks, and ensuring European payment sovereignty — without prejudging the possibility that the private sector could solve the scale and dependency gaps of the European payments ecosystem through interoperability.

AddedIn conclusion, the Rapporteur’s amendments to the establishment of the digital euro are formulated to ensure that the offline digital euro is introduced to address the challenge of the digitalisation of the economy, while the online digital euro is made conditional upon the absence of a pan-European private sovereign retail payment solution. This conditionality ensures that the digital euro acts as a safety net against market fragmentation, not as a parallel payments ecosystem hindering private solutions from reaching pan-European scale or discouraging continuous innovation.

AddedNothing in this position questions the importance of developing the wholesale digital euro, which the Rapporteur strongly supports as the most effective means to modernise interbank settlement, enhance cross-border efficiency and strengthen monetary-policy transmission across the euro area.

AddedSeparately, the Rapporteur treats this package as one coherent vision for the future of money in Europe, built upon three reinforcing pillars:

Added safeguarding the universality and access to cash,

Added introducing a digital form of central-bank money following a speedy but cautious approach which will also serve as a means of payment, and

Added allowing its cross-border provision in a way that respects non euro area Member States and third countries’ competences, and sovereignty and preserves the integrity of the single market.

AddedThe Single Currency package sets out a vision of a Europe adapted to the digital era, and committed to its strategic autonomy through openness: Europe leading by building capacity, sovereignty and resilience not by closing markets.

AddedThe rapporteur views this package as a single, coherent response to a twin challenge: Europe’s over-reliance on non-European payment providers and the need to anchor monetary sovereignty in an open, competitive and innovative market to ensure that Europe possesses its own backbone of payment resilience.

AddedBeing this approach the core of the Rapporteur’s proposal, he also addresses several additional concerns regarding the rules, framework and operational aspects of the legislation.

AddedThe Rapporteur clarifies the framework under which payment service providers (PSPs) established and supervised in the Union may distribute the digital euro in line with Directive (EU) 2015/2366. PSPs shall offer online and offline digital-euro payment services to residents and businesses in euro-area Member States, and to certain non-resident users, under defined conditions.

AddedDistinct rules apply to the online and offline digital euro. For the online digital euro, PSPs must enable users to fund and defund their digital-euro accounts—manually or automatically—from or to non-digital-euro accounts, offline devices or cash, within limits based on financial stability. For the offline digital euro, PSPs shall provide equivalent functionalities through secure devices, allowing users and merchants to load or redeem balances in line with stability and AML requirements.

AddedThe amendments establish an automatic defunding mechanism linking each online digital-euro account to a single non-digital-euro account designated by the user, ensuring compliance with holding limits and continuity of payments. The digital euro distributed by PSPs shall be convertible at par with other forms of euro-denominated money, and users shall maintain a contractual relationship only with PSPs, not with the ECB or national central banks. Users may hold one or several online accounts with the same or different PSPs, and providers must make information on features and conditions publicly available free of charge.

AddedThe rapporteur introduces specific holding limits to ensure that the digital euro is serving as a means of payment and it cannot evolve into a store of value. Holding limits, combined with funding and defunding mechanisms, they prevent excessive accumulation while enabling frictionless daily use, safeguarding the banking sector’s intermediation role and financial stability.

AddedTrust also depends on fairness. The Rapporteur sets principles on fees and charges to ensure that PSPs required to distribute the digital euro are fairly compensated while merchants are not overcharged. Since at the time of issuance there will not yet be sufficient information on average unit costs or the total volume of digital-euro transactions, a transition period will be needed. During that period, fees and charges will be based on a “no-worse-off” clause, ensuring a high degree of proportionality by applying criteria comparable to existing means of payment at a granular level.

AddedMoreover, the Rapporteur proposes that if, after a ten-year transition period, it is demonstrated that a cost-based compensation model delivers lower costs, greater efficiency and competition in payment markets, and prevents cross-subsidisation across merchant business models or within the European payments ecosystem, the Commission should propose a new legislative framework on fees and charges for the provision of digital-euro payment services.

AddedThe Rapporteur also stresses that citizens will embrace the digital euro only if it protects privacy as effectively as cash protects anonymity. AML/CFT controls shall apply at the user level, not by marking individual digital units, thereby preserving fungibility and preventing programmable or traceable money. The ECB must also ensure that fraud and counterfeiting levels remain below those of comparable instruments. Privacy, security and technological resilience are thus design imperatives, not optional features.

AddedThe two accompanying proposals complete this framework. The Regulation on the legal tender of euro banknotes and coins guarantees universal acceptance and access to cash in proportion to citizens’ demand, ensuring financial inclusion and resilience. Its coordination with the digital euro regulation is essential to avoid any perception of substitution. The Regulation on the provision of digital euro services in non-euro-area Member States provides the external dimension, allowing PSPs in those countries to offer digital-euro services under conditions respecting national prerogatives and the integrity of the single market.

AddedIn a nutshell, the Rapporteur’s proposal recognises that technological sovereignty in payments cannot be legislated into existence; it must stem from competition, innovation and trust. By prioritising private European infrastructures, the Single Currency Package safeguards both the euro’s stability and Europe’s competitiveness. It modernises the single currency without transforming it into a public payment monopoly.